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SEOUL-South Korea's chief nuclear envoy pressed North Korea on Friday to halt plans to rebuild a mothballed nuclear plant that makes arms-grade plutonium and to instead return to the bargaining table.Envoys from regional powers called hastily arranged meetings in Beijing from Friday to discuss the secretive North's move earlier this week to take the initial steps of restarting its ageing Soviet-era nuclear plant."This is a critical moment and we should try to break this deadlock as soon as possible so that North Korea can promptly restart nuclear disarmament and come back to the six-party talks," Kim Sook said before leaving for the Chinese capital.North Korea started to disable the Yongbyon facility in November, but halted the process last month, angered by Washington's failure to drop it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.The United States said North Korea must first agree on a system to verify Pyongyang's disclosures about its nuclear programs.Kim later arrived in Beijing where he planned to meet the nuclear envoys from the United States and Japan on Friday and then China's envoy on Saturday.Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, the U.S. point man on North Korea, told reporters in Beijing he was not expecting to meet North Korean officials during his trip, though he will see Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei."We're prepared to complete our obligations as they meet theirs," he said of North Korea. "You can't have a declaration without a verification protocol."To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
